It is becoming more and more popular to access the Internet or other data source using the family television receiver. The family television is now able to perform multiple functions such as connecting to a WebTV for accessing the Internet, connecting to a Tivo® personal video recorder to download program guides or becoming truly an interactive television with two way communication. Digital TV and interactive TV introduce these new functionalities to the TV users and give the home viewer the ability to download various forms of data or the ability to perform e-commerce transactions etc. using their family television.
One of the problems associated with a multifunction television is that others in the room want to watch a television program while another is trying to download her favorite MP3 file using the WebTV. The download process is sometimes time consuming depending on the bandwidth of the connection and the size of the file, and interferes with watching a television program. When the user initiates the download process the user must switch back and forth between watching the television and checking the download status of an on-screen download status indicator. This switching back and forth is quite annoying to someone trying to watch a television program. Even if the user has the ability to place the WebTV Internet site in the picture-in-picture portion of the television screen to monitor the download status while watching a television program in the main portion of the screen, others in the room are subject to also watching the television program with the annoying PIP display of which they may have no interest. Similarly, even with interactive television an on-screen download display takes up valuable screen space.
There is associated with the Internet “down time” when the web page or other data is being loaded into memory or trying to be accessed. During this time period it would be nice to view another television program and be notified when the download is complete.
It is also becoming popular to have electronic wallets associated with e-commerce. The amount available in the e-wallet should be readily accessible.